We have been residents of Kimba all our lives. We were born here, went to school here, married and have two young sons also born and raised in Kimba.

We are happy to provide the Committee with this submission relating to the appropriateness and thoroughness of the site selection process for a National Radioactive Waste Management Facility at Kimba.

Personally, we have no objection to hosting a national radioactive waste facility on the two sites that have been nominated for selection in our Kimba District. The process seems to have been fair, information has been good, which leads us to feel we are making the right decision for our Community.

As young parents we feel the need for the community to broaden its horizons so that our children get the best schooling possible and, in future years, the employment opportunities needed to keep them in the area we love.

We have had ample time to avail ourselves of information about this facility, and if we need more information there is an office based in the town which is staffed two days a week. The staff from The Department of Industry, Innovation and Science in this office are always happy to chat and provide information to answer our questions.

There has been numerous meetings, several town meetings, and a French Delegation visited Kimba to give insight into living near a nuclear facility. There have been several meetings with Departmental members, some community members have had meetings with Minister Canavan, and there have been several opportunities for funded trips to ANSTO to learn more about waste storage.

Overall, there has been ample media coverage, newspaper, social media radio and television.

We don’t know what the community will decide in the end. We have had a vote to decide whether more information was required and we voted in favour of that. We needed the chance to learn more.

There has been talk of broadening the boundaries for a vote but what is happening in our community is for our Community and only our community. It is our back yard no one else’s. We are residents here. We all have our opinions and feelings on this matter but have always been a close community and feel it always will be.

We can only see positive outcomes for our town

 New jobs: This, might not be many, the talk is 15, but that may bring families with children and what a bonus for our school to have an influx of children. Plus empty houses in the town, what a bonus for them to be sold or rented.

 The need for more essential services in the town: hospital, doctor (which we are struggling to keep, already on the lookout for a new one as the current doctor leaves at end of March) dentist (which we do not have). We need to keep the services we have but it is a struggle to do so

 The $2,000,000 Benefit Fund was a real bonus for the community. Anyone can submit a submission for funding. There are so many things we need that are not going ahead because of lack of funds, and now a lot of them will.

As long-term residents who don’t want to leave the district all we can see is opportunity for our town and ultimately, we feel the facility might be a lifeline for the town. The town is struggling. The CFS, The SES, The Ambulance Service all struggling for members because of declining population.

We are aware there is another location (Hawker), that is also being looked at. We should be able to decide what is best for our community ourselves, and so should they. We don’t think this enquiry is required as we feel communities know what is best for them. Everything has been open and above board in this process.

FEDERALSubmissions about the proposed National Radioactive Waste Management Facility in Kimba or the Flinders Ranges. The Standing Committee on Environment and Energy are accepting submissions to the ‘Inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia’ until 16 September 2019. Please write your own submission or use FOE’s online proforma.

Nuclear facilities, including power stations and radioactive waste dumps, are now banned in Queensland.

Nuclear facilities banned under the Act include:

·nuclear reactors (whether used to generate electricity or not);

·uranium conversion and enrichment plants;

·nuclear fuel fabrication plants;

·spent fuel processing plants; and

·facilities used to store or dispose of material associated with the nuclear fuel cycle e.g. radioactive waste material.

Exemptions under the legislation include facilities for the storage or disposal of waste material resulting from research or medical purposes, and the operation of a nuclear-powered vessel.

1 FEDERALSubmissions about the proposed National Radioactive Waste Management Facility in Kimba or the Flinders Ranges. The Standing Committee on Environment and Energy are accepting submissions to the ‘Inquiry into the prerequisites for nuclear energy in Australia’ until 16 September 2019. Please write your own submission or use FOE’s online proforma.

Australia has long rejected nuclear power, and it is banned in Federal and State laws. The nuclear lobby is out to first repeal those laws, and then to get the Australian government to commit to buying probably large numbers of Small Modular Nuclear Reactors (SMRs) . This could mean first importing plutonium and/or enriched uranium, as some reactor models, (thorium ones) require these to get the fission process started. That would, in effect, mean importing nuclear wastes.

There’s an all-too short period for people to send in Submissions to the 4 Parliamentary Inquiries now in progress.